Young marketing firm uses viral, eco-friendly methods

Wednesday

Aug 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 7, 2013 at 12:09 PM

It was an advertising agency's nightmare - and dream come true - all rolled into one. Red, White & Boom was set to draw thousands of people into Downtown - enough people to thrill any client trying to market a product or service. But street closures would limit the opportunities to easily reach all those people. CivitasNow's solution for one client: power-washing a stencil on the pavement.

Tim Feran, The Columbus Dispatch

It was an advertising agency's nightmare - and dream come true - all rolled into one.

Red, White & Boom was set to draw thousands of people into Downtown - enough people to thrill any client trying to market a product or service.

But street closures would limit the opportunities to easily reach all those people, and the old strategy of passing out fliers seemed like an invitation to create a pile of unread trash.

"Lifeline of Ohio asked us how they could reach people, but not be wasteful," said Jacob Taylor, co-founder of local marketing firm CivitasNow. "So we power-washed a stencil on the pavement."

The strategy on behalf of the organ-donor organization is the kind of outside-the-box thinking for which CivitasNow is becoming known. The year-old marketing firm specializes in viral, renewable campaigns using topiary, sidewalk chalk and power washing, among other methods, to deliver its clients' marketing messages.

The power washing cleans only part of the pavement because part is covered with a stencil. It "leaves a clean image," Taylor said. "We've done it on walls, pavement, street corners. It's clean; it leaves no residue. We saw people taking pictures, hashtagging it. It was great."

"And when we were doing it," said CivitasNow co-founder Matt Barnes, "people asked what we were doing - and that gave us a chance to evangelize for the brand, too."

Thanks to the power-wash campaign, Lifeline has seen more traffic on its Facebook page and on its website, said Heather Blausey, the organization's community-relations manager. "As a nonprofit, we're always looking for unique, grass-roots ways to reach a larger amount of people inexpensively," she said.

Lifeline had used CivitasNow before, during one of the marketing firm's "Tweet and Go Seek" campaigns.

In that Twitter-based scavenger-hunt campaign, Barnes hides 4-by-4-inch tiles around town, then posts photo clues to entice foragers into tracking down the tiles. In some cases, the tiles can be redeemed for discounts or freebies.

The firm has used Barnes' Twitter campaign for the past three years on behalf of the Greater Columbus Arts Council's three-day Columbus Arts Festival. "It's a tremendously effective social-media promotion for us," said Jamie Goldstein, spokeswoman for the council. "I've seen multiple people running for the same tile. It's effective and a lot of fun. Those of us who run events need to differentiate ourselves from traditional methods. They offer a way to do it."

Columbus has a large complement of marketing companies, but this one stands out for two reasons, said Deborah Mitchell, a professor of marketing at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

"The first is, they are breakthrough, they are different, and that tends to capture attention more," she said. "The other thing about it is they are very current. With old-style media, the idea was that, sure, a billboard wasn't forever, but you would have to buy a certain amount of time, usually a month. With these kinds of campaigns, you can get rid of it whenever you want. You can put it up for a day and get rid of it overnight if you want."

Although the firm's marketing tactics are cutting-edge, they are merely the means through which CivitasNow achieves the two goals it set forth when Barnes, 34, quit his job with Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and Taylor, 21, dropped out of Ohio State to start the business in May 2012.

"We wanted to make advertising environmentally sustainable and socially responsible," Barnes said. "We think advertising is kind of a wasteful industry. Every year, 600 tons of billboard vinyl go into landfills, for instance. We'd like to change the face of advertising, make it so that you can still get your message out, but not be offensive or disruptive. We want it to be thoughtfully placed, tastefully chosen."

"Some media buyers still don't understand living walls," Taylor said. "It's not totally unique, but it is still pretty unique in advertising ... We say, no one takes pictures of your billboard, but they take pictures of ours."

One of the company's latest clients is the North Market, which recently hired CivitasNow to develop and manage its on-site marketing.

The firm's style of alternative marketing fits perfectly with the North Market's environment and could ultimately "create a new, meaningful and compelling revenue stream to support our future goals," said Rick Harrison Wolfe, executive director of the North Market.

The contract is a huge lift to CivitasNow as well. "They trust us to bring in the right brands and do tasteful designs that keep the architecture intact," Taylor said. "It's really cool, and it allows us to be a larger agency overnight."

As such growth begins to ramp up, "the key will be to stay this creative," Mitchell said. "That will be the challenge. Because people will imitate it, and then they all kind of suffer.

"But these guys are admirable," she said. "Good for them; they are being creative. Some of the old-line agencies have tried to do this, but not as good as these guys."

tferan@dispatch.com

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